EAST LANSING – When Michigan State football kicks off its season Friday, Aug. 29, it could answer – at least temporarily – one of the biggest questions for the Spartans.
Who will handle that kicking?
Coach Jonathan Smith said sophomore Tarik Ahmetbasic, a preferred walk-on from Clinton Township, will be a game-time decision for the 7 p.m. start against Western Michigan (FS1). Redshirt freshman Martin Connington, the scholarship kicker also brought in with the second-year staff’s initial recruiting class in 2024, remains “a week or two away,” Smith said.
That puts another walk-on, Blake Sislo, potentially in the spotlight to make his collegiate debut inside Spartan Stadium on national TV. The fifth-year senior from Dexter spent three seasons on the team at Division II Davenport but did not see any game action, then sat out all last season as he transferred to MSU.
“To be honest, Blake has been solid through camp,” Smith said Monday, Aug. 25. “I think statistically, his numbers are similar to the way we were kicking field goals last camp with (Jonathan) Kim. So we’ve got confidence in him.”
Ahmetbasic was a Free Press first-team all-state and All-East selection in 2022, going 16-for-18 on field goals and delivering 98 touchbacks in his high school career at Chippewa Valley. He was 9-for-9 on field goals and made all 40 point-after attempts with 37 touchbacks as a senior in 2022 before redshirting at MSU in 2023.
Sislo’s last kick in a game came in 2020 for Dexter High, and he at one point made 37 straight extra point attempts while also playing defensive back for the Dreadnaughts. He was a teammate of MSU sophomore tight end Brennan Parachek at Dexter.
Connington, an Idaho native, was rated the nation’s No. 5 kicker according to Kohl’s Kicking and No. 7 by 247Sports.com in the 2024 class. He made 6 of 7 kicks his senior season in 2023 while averaging nearly 58 yards per kickoff and 31.7 yards per punt.
The Spartans are replacing steady Kim, who handled field goals and kickoffs in all 24 games for MSU the past two seasons after spending his first four years at North Carolina. Kim finished as the Spartans’ career leader in field-goal percentage at 82.1 percent, making 32 of 39 attempts, and his 135 points from 2023-24 accounted for nearly 32% of the team’s scoring as MSU’s offense often sputtered.
Both Ahmetbasic (who kicked an extra point and two kickoffs in the fourth quarter of a blowout win over Prairie View A&M last year) and Connington (who did not see game action) battled undisclosed injuries throughout the past month that limited their availability during camp this month.
Smith said he plans to limit the early-week kicks for Ahmetbasic to help healing.
“(Ahmetbasic) hasn’t been able to do much last week. Toward the end of the week, some,” Smith said. “We’ll kind of see where that lands with him. … We want them healthy to be able to execute the kick. We’re not gonna put them out there if they’re not healthy.”
Along with the kicking concern, long snapper Kaden Schickel (a James Madison transfer in 2024) also remains questionable for the opener after suffering an ACL injury against Michigan last season. If the senior can’t go, freshman Jack Wills from Hudsonville will handle the snapping on kicks and punts, Smith said.
Senior safety Nikai Martinez, who also has missed a large portion of camp, also will be a game-time decision. Smith said Martinez took some reps during practice Monday, and he said tight end Jack Velling has been back practicing for a little over a week and is expected to play Friday.
MSU went 5-7 last season and missed a bowl game for the fourth time in five seasons and third year in a row. The Spartans are 14-2 all-time and have won 12 straight against the Broncos, who are coming off a 6-7 season and are 10-15 in coach Lance Taylor’s first two seasons in Kalamazoo. The Spartans’ two losses to WMU came in 1917 and 1919, but they have been tested into the second half in four of the last eight meetings since 2003.
“These guys are so excited to play,” Smith said. “And we do talk about respecting every time we get to line up, and paying respects to whoever we’re playing. And how we do that is through our preparation. I said that this morning.
“I think there’s a maturity on this team. And just watching them practice (Monday), there’s no signs of looking forward.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football’s kicking situation looks dicey for Friday’s opener vs. WMU
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
